This blog will present news items about the motion picture business, with emphasis on lower budget, independent film in most cases. Some reviews or commentaries on specific films, with emphasis on significance (artistic or political) or comparison, are presented. Note: No one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"!

About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

"Before and After": Justice drama with Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson from the 90s

The title of the 1996 film “Before and After” suggests a concept many of us know: where were you when something truamatic happened, and you found out, and life wouldn’t be the same. We could say that about 9/11. We could say that about the moment most of us in the 80s understood the nature of HIV.

In the film directed by Barbet Schroeder, a family (Liam Neeson is pop, and Meryl Streep, looking younger, plays a female doctor) is confronted with their teenage son’s being accused of killing his girlfriend when a policeman, out of uniform, rings the doorbell one evening.

In terms of screenwriting, the film presents a clear cut dilemma, and crisis, and the story follows (in “beginning-middle-end” format) in straightforward, “American Hollywood” fashion. The post-romantic music score by Howard Shore sprinkles us with dissonances just when the camera is going to raise the tension level.

There is a twist, of course. It was an accident. But she was pregnant. And because of the contrivances in the American justice system, no one, including the boy (Edward Furlong) can afford to tell the truth – otherwise there is no movie.

Like many genre dramas, the film seems to have an “anywhere” location (the fishing huts suggest Minnesota) but pretty soon we’re pretty well established as being in Massachusetts.

The film comes from Hollywood Pictures (with its Sphinx trade dress), which Disney uses off and on for quasi-independent genre films, similar to Sony’s Screen Gems.

I do recall seeing a teen Ed Furlong in Charles Matthau’s film of Truman Capote’s quaint story “The Glass Harp” from Fine Line in 1995, where Ed plays the character Collin Fenwick.

Analytics

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at JBoushka@aol.com.

At billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com , the privacy of my visitors is of extreme importance to me. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com and how it is used.

Log Files Like many other Web sites, billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com does not use cookies.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com .
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following link.

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on my site. My advertising partners include ....... Google Adsense

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com 's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.

Especially for EU visitors: This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. For more info visit https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/